Copenhagen Games 2019 Preview

by Valentin Gustafsson on 27th Feb, 2019

One of the oldest competitions in CS:GO returns as Copenhagen Games 2019 draws closer.

preview

Freelance eSports Writer

Valentin Gustafsson

Share this Article

One of the oldest competitions in CS:GO returns as Copenhagen Games 2019 draws closer. Last year we saw Team Imperial take down Heroic in the finals, a tournament in which Rokas ‘EspiranTo’ Milasauskas had his big breakthrough. Keep on reading as we break down all you need to know about this year’s tournament.

Competition Information

Team Singularity hoisted the trophy in 2017.

Copenhagen Games is one of the oldest competitions in CS:GO. They have been running CS:GO tournaments since the Beta back in 2012 when the Swedish 1.6 team SK Gaming with Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg and Cristopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund defeated ESC Gaming, the team that would later become Virtus.Pro. During the early years of CS:GO, this tournament was able to attract some big names but as prize pools have grown larger, Copenhagen Games has turned into more of a proving ground for up-and-coming teams.

Eight teams in total will be competing at this year’s event, four of whom have received direct invites. The teams will be duking it out in two different groups with a round-robin format. All matches are best-of-three and the top two teams from each group will advance to a single-elimination best-of-three playoff bracket. The tournament starts April 18 and ends April 20.

In the early years of CS:GO, Copenhagen Games was dominated by NiP who won back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014, as well as the Polish side Virtus.Pro who won this tournament in 2015 and have found themselves in the finals on an additional two occasions. Since then, we have had different winners and finalists each year, as the tournament has been unable to attract teams such as NiP and Virtus.Pro again.

In 2016, we saw a Hellraisers team which at the time included the likes of Tomáš ‘oskar’ Šťastný and Martin ‘STYKO’ Styk defeat the Bulgarian team E-Frag in the finals. Two players who later went on to have a lot of success under the banner of mousesports.

In 2017, the young Danish side of Team Singularity took down the Swedish mix-team Dreamchasers in the finals. A Dreamchasers team which included former major winners such as Markus ‘pronax’ Wallsten and Andreas ‘znajder’ Lindberg. The Danes have since parted ways but are still competing on different lower tier teams in Denmark. Allan ‘AnJ’ Jensen earned himself a place on the North American team NRG after his play at this tournament, but his stay was shortlived. He now competes together with the ex-Fragsters team that most recently placed third at Dreamhack Open Valencia.

EspiranTo was brilliant for Imperial when they won Copenhagen Games 2018.

In 2018, Copenhagen Games opted to cut the team total down from sixteen to eight and the prize pool was increased. In that event, we saw the international team Imperial, now known as Valiance, defeat the Danes from Heroic in the finals. This was a breakthrough tournament for the Lithuanian Rokas ‘EspiranTo’ Milasauskas, who at sixteen years old dropped multiple thirty-bombs on his way to the finals where he cooled off somewhat, ending the tournament on a total rating of 1.24. He led all players in K/D differential (+42) kills per round (0.85) and headshots per round (0.52) which made him an excellent play for fantasy that year.

Much like the Dreamhack Open events, this tournament mostly features lower-tier teams who are looking to make a name for themselves and we should see the same thing this time around, as the prize pool still isn’t big enough to attract the best teams in the world. However, these tournaments are usually good fun to watch, as you get a glimpse into the players of tomorrow and observers with a good eye for talent will have a good chance of profiting off fantasy and betting.

Language & Region

en

Skrilla is licensed and regulated by the Northern Territory Government in respect of Australian resident customers and is an active member of the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC), recognised as the acting body for esports wagering integrity globally.